Finding Peace and Happiness

Lately, I’ve been noticing that I haven’t been as good about practicing my daily meditation. As in, once I stopped to think about it, I realized I’d missed MANY days. Last week, I talked about how I was going to get better at meditating daily…and then, as if the Universe was reading my blog, I saw a post on my friend’s Facebook page about a 21-Day Meditation Challenge being offered by the Chopra Center…this is a FREE program offered online, and I wanted to know more. I’ve done other meditation challenges before, and they were fine, but THIS one really resonated with me. It’s all about meditations that help you find and expand your happiness, and it includes an online journal feature, which I haven’t seen in other challenges I’ve done. I knew this was the one for me, so I signed up (see https://chopracentermeditation.com for more info). It kicked off on Monday (8/11), and it’s not too late to join in, as each meditation is available for 5 days after it posts. If you can’t commit now, you can purchase the whole program for $39.99.

I’ll tell you, this program is amazing so far! I’ve been listening to a lot of podcasts lately where the focus has been on improving happiness, and I’ve also seen many articles in my magazines focusing on the same topic. It seems like everyone is trying to improve their happiness, and I couldn’t be more excited about that. After all, if we’re happy, we’re less likely to experience physical or emotional illness.

Today’s meditation really hit home with me. It’s all about peace, and the mantra for today is Shanti Hum (I am peace). Hmm…I am peace…I never would have classified myself in that way. I feel like most of the time, I am a big ball of stress, no matter how hard I try not to be. After I finished the meditation, I went to the journal to record my thoughts.

The journal asked us to think of a peaceful experience we’d had during a challenging situation, and to imagine that feeling of calm becoming deeper and stronger within your soul to the point where nothing happening in the environment could shake it. It asked us to describe what that kind of peace would feel like physically, mentally and emotionally. And then, “How could this type of peace change your life?”

Oh my gosh, if I could feel that kind of peace all the time, I think I would be a whole new person. So many of my physical health symptoms are made worse by stress, so I know that if I could find my peace and make it last, I would feel so much better. And I think my emotional health would be greatly improved, because maybe I wouldn’t worry so much about EVERYTHING. And mentally, I think I’d be able to focus on the things that will bring me to the next level in my life, which could totally CHANGE my life by allowing me to focus on the things where I feel I could truly make a difference in the world.

What about you? Can you think of a peaceful experience you recently had where you felt totally calm, inside and out? How long did that feeling last? What could you do to bring that feeling back if it’s no longer with you?

It’s important to do things in your life that make you happy. When you’re happy, it’s much easier to be at peace, even when life throws a curve ball your way. And when you find that peace, it radiates through every cell of your body, and others can’t help but be affected in a positive way.

So find your peace. If you can, join in this 21-day Meditation Challenge. Each meditation is only around 20 minutes. Can you take 20 minutes to invest in your happiness? I hope you can and will join me on this challenge. If nothing else, write your own journal entry for the above,and see if you can learn something about yourself from it.

If you do decide to join the challenge, let me know…we can keep each other motivated and support each other. Let’s get happy!